Peninsula Daily News and news sources
VICTORIA — The most popular shopping street for people who take the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria might be closed off to cars to experiment with turning it into a pedestrian mall.
The City Council might consider closing Government Street in the shopping district north of the Fairmont Empress Hotel to vehicle traffic for trial periods this summer to see how the action affects the retail businesses that line it.
Among those popular businesses that appeal to the hundreds of thousands of passengers who travel aboard the MV Coho from Port Angeles annually include a row of British-style candy and ice cream stores, Munro’s Books, The Bay Centre multistory shopping mall, several British and Irish pubs and the Sasquatch Indian Sweater Shop.
John Vickers, organizer of Victoria’s international busker and chalk festivals, brought the idea to the City Council in late January.
“A pedestrian mall is not simply barricading a street, it’s a reinvention of the street . . . to become more of a community destination, because that’s really what’s missing from Government Street,” Vickers said.
City Councilor Chris Coleman, in response to Vickers’ unexpected request, said he recognizes that there are people on both sides of the issue, and he wants to make sure either perspective is evaluated carefully before any decisions are made.
With no plans in place yet, Coleman said it is too early to speculate if any Government Street closures could occur this summer or not.
“It’s not something that we will jump into with great rapidity.”
Vickers said support for the idea of turning Government Street into a pedestrian mall from Humboldt Street to Yates Street — leaving Fort Street open to east-west traffic — has been gaining acceptance through successful demonstration events such as the Victoria International Buskers Festival and the Victoria Chalk Festival.
But Bruce Carter, CEO of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said having events that close down Government Street can actually reduce sales.
“Canada Day [is] a good example of one, where sales are down by up to 75 percent,” Carter told the Victoria News.
“And that’s because there are a lot of people downtown, but they didn’t necessarily come downtown to shop. Sometimes because it’s just too busy.”
To create an environment conducive to businesses and the community on Government Street, Vickers said there needs to be programming and events.
“The frustration for us is that people [say], ‘closed street, that means bad business,’ and they’ve never tried a pedestrian mall,” Vickers said. “When the street is closed, you do need some consistent vitality on the street.”
Ken Kelly, general manager of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said he will poll Government Street merchants about the idea.
As it stands, more than two million pedestrians were counted by the business association on the west side of the 1100 block of Government Street last year.
Councilor Coleman said a divide occurs because some businesses have had positive experiences with street closures for specific events — such as Vickers’ chalk festivals — while others have not.
“You’re trying to improve the vibrancy of downtown for everybody without having a negative impact on some others,” he said.
Councilor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, one of the City Council’s liaisons to downtown residents, said any changes to Government Street will have to have buy-in from everyone affected, including businesses.
The City Council said it will discuss the matter but set no date for that discussion.
________
Staff Writer Andrea Peacock of the Victoria News, sister newspaper of the Peninsula Daily News, contributed to this report.
